OSHA has published a new round of regulatory interpretation letters, providing new readings of its standards governing permit-required confined spaces (PRCS), storage of compressed-gas cylinders and approved lifting devices for working with electrical transformers, each in response to separate requests for clarification from various employers.
November 15, 2026
A Massachusetts hospital and its Delaware-based management company are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to review an OSHA enforcement action that treated the two as a “single employer,” setting up a potentially precedent-setting decision on when the agency can subject firms to higher penalties that stem from such a standard.
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Employers are tentatively backing a potential OSHA rule to tighten its decades-old limit for workers’ blood lead levels but are urging the agency to be cautious with any broader revisions to the lead exposure standards, especially if officials intend to model the federal update on strict proposals pending in Washington and California.
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OSHA officials used the public hearing on a forthcoming permanent COVID-19 rule for healthcare facilities to press union representatives for more data and testimony to support the groups’ arguments that a stringent regulation is needed to protect workers, asking questions on workplace infections, cost management and a host of other issues.
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Labor unions and safety groups are urging OSHA to reject employers’ calls to defer to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in any permanent COVID-19 safety standard for healthcare workers, saying that agency’s statutory mission and procedures are distinct from -- and less stringent than -- the OSH Act’s mandate to ensure safe workplaces.
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President Joe Biden has withdrawn his nomination of attorney and former Obama Department of Labor deputy solicitor Susan Harthill to serve on the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), leaving the normally three-member panel to continue with two commissioners for the foreseeable future.
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Some employers are warning OSHA that any move to revive the emergency temporary standard (ETS) would be illegal while others are urging the agency to link any long-term COVID-19 safety standard for the healthcare sector with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance in order to ensure flexibility in response to new research on the disease.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has largely upheld an enforcement citation stemming from a 2018 construction accident, holding that OSHA’s safety standard for cranes and derricks requires strict adherence to equipment manuals and rejecting the employer’s argument that its use of “similar” safety measures was sufficient.
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OSHA is formally proposing to withdraw Arizona’s state plan authority under the OSH Act, pointing not only to the state’s failure to adopt a counterpart to the COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare workers but a longer “history of shortcomings” on fall protections and overall enforcement dating back to 2012.
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A group of 31 House and Senate Democrats is stepping up pressure on EPA to consider climate change impacts in its upcoming risk management plan (RMP) facility safety rule, arguing that hazards such as more frequent extreme weather will act as a “threat multiplier” for chemical releases and other disasters the rule is meant to prevent or mitigate.
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